DIHECT BENEFITS DEBIVED FROM INSECTS. 327 



always afterwards retain it. Towards the beginning of 

 Avinter small turtiours are perceived, which increase 

 until as big as a walnut. These are the nests (abdo- 

 mens of the females) filled with tlie eggs that are to 

 give birth to the Cocci, which when hatched disperse 

 themselves over the leaves, and perforate the bark under 

 which they retire. The wax (called Pe-Ia, white wax, 

 because so by nature,) begins to appear about the mid- 

 dle of June. At first a few filaments like fine soft wool 

 are perceived, rising from the bark round the body of 

 the insect, and these increase more and more until the 

 gathering, which takes place before the first hoar frosts 

 in September. The wax is carried to court, and re- 

 served for the emperor, the princes, and chief manda- 

 rins. If an ounce of it be added to a pound of oil, it 

 forms a wax little inferior to that made by bees. The 

 physicians employ it in several diseases ; and the Chi- 

 nese, when about to speak in public and assurance is 

 necessary, previously eat an ounce of it to prevent 

 swoonings^; a use of it for which happily our less diffi- 

 dent orators have no call. This account is in the main 

 confirmed by Geomelli Careri, except that he calls the 

 wax-insect a wonn which bores to the pith of certain 

 trees; and says that it produces a sufficient supply for 

 the whole empire, the different provinces of which are 

 furnished from Xantung, where it is bred in the great- 

 est perfection, with a stock of eggs'*. A very different 

 origin, however, is assigned to the Pe-la by Sir George 

 Staunton, who informs us that it is produced by a spe- 

 cies of Cicada (C. limbata), which in its larva state 

 feeds upon a plant like the privet; strewing upon the 



" Grosicr's China, i. 439, " Quoted in Southey's Thalaba, ii. 166. 



